The naked boxer

Portraiture, of course, did not confine itself to men of
refinement and intellect. As an extreme example of what
was possible in the opposite direction nothing could be
better than the original bronze statue shown in Fig.
177. It was found in Rome in 1885, and is essentially
complete, except for the missing eyeballs; the seat is
new. The statue represents a naked boxer of herculean
frame, his hands armed with the aestus or boxing-gloves
made of leather. The man is evidently a professional
"bruiser" of the lowest type. He is just resting after
an encounter, and no detail is spared to bring out the
nature of his occupation. Swollen ears were the
conventional mark of the boxer at all periods, but here
the effect is still further enhanced by scratches and
drops of blood. Moreover, the nose and cheeks bear
evidence of having been badly "punished," and the
moustache is clotted with blood. From top to toe the
statue exhibits the highest grade of technical skill.
One would like very much to know what was the original
purpose of the work. It may have been a votive statue,
dedicated by a victorious boxer at Olympia or elsewhere.
A bronze head of similar brutality found at
Olympia
bears witness that the refined statues of athletes
produced in the best period of Greek art and set up in
that precinct were forced at a later day to accept such
low companionship. Or it may be that this boxer is not
an actual person at all, and that the statue belongs to
the domain of genre. In either case it testifies to the
coarse taste of the age.